Week 10- chronicle entry – Hanem Ibrahim

My Goal for this week is learning about the development of electronic books.

Targeted information goals:

How E- books developed over the years?

What is the new trends in E- books?

What are the effects of these development on the society ?

References

1- Watson, P. (2004). E-PUBLISHING: A RAPIDLY MATURING INDUSTRY. Library

Technology Reports, 40(6), 5-6. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

2. The History And Popularity of Ebooks (2008) Retrieved on Nov. 8, 2009 from

http://www.articlesbase.com/ebooks-articles/the-history-and-popularity-of-ebooks-481506.html

3- Shiratuddin, N (2005) E-Books in Higher Education: Technology, E-Marketing Prospects, and

Pricing Strategy. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations. Hershey: Apr-Jun 2005. Vol. 3, Iss.
2; pg. 1, 16 pgs retrieved on Nov. 8, 2009, from http://0-proquest.umi.com.www.consuls.org/pqdweb?
index=0&did=800939981&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=4&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VN
ame=PQD&TS=1257730513&clientId=23650

Summary

The e-book or electronic book is also named eco-book. It is the digital equal to the
traditional printed book. The contents are read on personal computers or by the use of hardware
devices called e-book readers. They are also easily shared and stored on a hard drive or storage
disk. Early e-books were generally written in specialty areas, intended to be documents that only
small groups might share, and therefore were few and far between. Their subject matter ranged
from technical manuals for cutting-edge hardware and manufacturing techniques to material ,
they were not suited for minors and everywhere in-between . The first thinking of the E-book
was triggered off by Michael Hart in the 1970`s. He reasoned that the greatest value of a
computer should be not merely computing but also storing material, retrieving it and searching
for knowledge kept in libraries. The birth of the ebook era started with the copy of Declaration of
Independence. From these humble beginnings kicked off Project Gutenberg. Today there are
20,000 free texts and more than 100,000 books available. Each month 3,000,000 ebooks are
downloaded - undoubtedly impressive figures in the history of ebooks (The history, 2009).

The growing interest in electronic books (e-books) has resulted in a collection of

hybrid definitions of the term such as. Electronic publishing which had an unprecedented impact
on what is available for libraries to acquire and on purchasing practices. (Watson,2004) The e-
book publishers distributed old and rare books while new writers and publishers struck out on
their own offering online books creating new readers and clients. Many commercial e-publishers
are taking active steps to influence these changes and to improve the reputation and acceptance
of e-books. E-publishers and authors consider "consumer education" (and industry education) to
be a major part of their mission. There are also what we call E- bookstores and there are Digital
Libraries. Another recent interpretation of an e-book is the "print-on-demand" book, whereby the
contents of a book are stored in a system connected to a high-speed, high-quality printer, from
which printed and bound copies are produced on demand with the possibility of buying chapter-
by-chapter, customized books all these new results (Shiratuddin, N , 2005)

All these new trends had a great impact in our society, they changed the type of reading
and also changed the type of reader. Now there are a variety of online sources such as novels,
journals, newspapers, magazines, and manuals. Customers have shown interest in e-books about
computers and business, as well as romance and science fiction novels. Well-known writers such
as Stephen King are among those interested in marketing their books in electronic format. That
may get new reader to read more, and that will also affect the library contents , it will include
more e-books among their collections, There will be complete digital libraries that contain only
e-materials. (Shiratuddin, N, 2005)